A blog about everything and nothing. Here is where I like to pontificate about Jewish magic and mysticism; technology and artificial intelligence; social justice in the US and Israel; trippy theater & cinema; live-action roleplaying (LARP); and LGBT issues. No topic related to any of the above will ever be taboo as long as you bring it up in a calm and respectful manner.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Golden Age Draft: The Tale of the Unformed

"The earth was Unformed and Void, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of the Elohim moved upon the face of the waters."

-Genesis 1:2

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
-John 1:1

"Do not the unbelievers see that the skies and the earth were one, and we ripped them apart?"
-Qu'ran 21:30

In the beginning, in the time before Time, there was the Void, teeming with primal Chaos. There was no Matter, nor Thought, nor even Idea. There was only the seething, bubbling potentialities of the Unformed.

Then came the Creator, the First Mind, filled with the first Thoughts. Its consciousness rippled through the whole of Unformed existence, and soon other Minds began to emerge within the Void. There was consensus that this was Good, but the newly-awakened Unformed were unsure how to proceed. Some of the Unformed joined the Creator to form a collective known as the Elohim. Most, however, preferred to remain Unformed in the Void.

The Elohim resolved to explore their creative powers. First They created Language, through which all their other creations would manifest. They Named each other, and with that Naming they received defined duties and spheres of influence. Many of these Names are forgotten today, but those of the twin brothers El and Allah have endured for millennia.

Once each of the Elohim had at least one name - El and Allah were alike in that they preferred to collect many - they resolved to bring forth first Time and then Matter. They created stars, planets, galaxies, and finally progressed to creating new Minds encased in Flesh. They were omnipotent, and so they could create matter and consciousness out of nothing.

Or so they thought.

It was around this time that the Unformed discovered their numbers were decreasing. Rapidly. While Names were a thing of the Elohim, voices that once resounded through the Void were now absent. None could locate them. And so it was that a brave few Unformed volunteered to travel to the one place they had not yet looked: the physical realms the Elohim had created. These explorers of the Unformed would one day be known as the first Fae.

What these first Fae found in those realms both terrified and infuriated them. They could plainly see that within each and every sentient being existing outside the Void sat an imprisoned Mind that had once been Unformed. Some of these were content with their lives, but those who wished to be free could not escape. Even if their physical body were to be killed, they were bound into the cycle of death and rebirth now. They might be absorbed into the soil and come back as part of a tree or a fish or even a hillside, but never would they be able to return to the Void. These Minds screamed out for Justice, wishing to flee these static Forms imposed upon them against their will. The Fae had ears to hear.

Even as relatively malleable as the Fae were, compared to their Form-locked siblings, not all possessed the strength necessary to make it back to the Void. Those who remained on earth tried to gain admittance to Heaven and Hell, in the hopes of speaking with the Elohim, or even their representatives or adversaries. They failed. Pounding upon the mighty gates, it was as if the inhabitants of these realms could not even see them. The Fae returned to earth, awaiting a message from the Void that would not come in their now-finite lifetime.

Those who managed to escape Reality did so with news of the Elohim's atrocity, along with detailed intelligence about weak points in both Space and Time. The weakest point in time was many centuries later, in the time the humans would one day call the Middle Ages. The weak point in space was on earth, in that land known variously as Spain, Iberia, or al-Andalus.And so it was that the Unformed fired their first warning shot on Reality, near earth, in the time between times. One fateful night, as the creatures of earth, Heaven, and Hell watched the sky, the full moon was engulfed in shadow and vanished. Astronomers and astrologers alike were puzzled and frightened by the occurrence.Angels traveled to where the moon had once been, only to discover no trace of it. The Legions of Hell were abuzz with questions about which demon had been crafty enough to steal the moon... but no one claimed responsibility. Seers and magicians and sorcerers and prophets and witches all used their considerable talents to locate the missing Sphere, but to no avail. This simply could not be. The Solomonic College presided over an unprecedented meeting between the Archangels and the Princes of Hell, in which Heaven and Hell came to an agreement.

The gates of both Heaven and Hell would be sealed. No one, not angel, not demon, not even spirits of the dead, would be permitted to enter or leave either realm. Those inside Heaven and Hell would fortify and defend their homes. Those on earth would be charged with jointly investigating this attack on Creation.

As for the Elohim, they were strangely silent on the matter. Word from Heaven was that they could not be found...